Editorial: Sen. Schumer's diplomas proposal needs consideration

Nov. 16, 2012

In this Dec. 21 file photo, process development associate Kaitlin Worden of White Plains performs end-of-year maintenance on bioreactors at Regeneron in Tarrytown. Nationwide, many high-skilled jobs remain unfilled because of what employers term a 'skills gap' among U.S. workers. / A Journal News file photo

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A Journal News editorial

Sen. Charles Schumer / AP File Photo

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With innumerable state and federal education reforms not yet run their course, there would seem little room for another, this one from Sen. Charles Schumer, who wants to create new technology diplomas for high school graduates. Yet with the job outlook still worrisome, New York education officials will have little choice but to consider it.

The Democratic senator, who is in the thick of the Washington debate over the “fiscal cliff” of tax and budget policy, took a brief detour this week to promote a initiative that would create two new paths to a high school diploma in New York — one tailored for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and the other for career and technical education (CTE).

Catchy acronyms aside, the proposals are about J-O-B-S. The way Schumer sees it, the STEM diploma would serve as a pathway for producing highly skilled workers for the state’s burgeoning high-tech industries, now taking root in multiple venues across the state, including the Lower Hudson Valley and New York City. The CTE diploma would serve as a pathway to regional manufacturing jobs — among them precision machining, welding and optics.

Among the additional academic requirements: STEM students would add a second math or science assessment; CTE students would take one CTE assessment “that meets the college and career ready level of rigor.” If that sounds like a fancy way of saying, “add more job skills training” to public education, that doubtless is the point. While slack demand cost millions their livelihood during the recession, it is a diminished skills set that leaves U.S. employers unable to fill positions. According to a “60 Minutes” report Sunday, the “skills gap” leaves 3 million jobs unfilled.

This harsh reality gained sparse attention in the just-concluded race for the White House — the candidates were likelier to blame China for U.S. job woes; it gets considerable notice in a 2010 report by MIT researcher David Autor, cited in this space before. He wrote that since the 1970s and early 1980s, the rise in U.S. education levels has not kept pace with the rising demand for skilled workers, with the slowdown in educational attainment especially severe for males.

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'Polarization of employment'

Those without the requisite skills find themselves shut out from high-wage jobs and a shrinking number of mid-wage jobs, and chasing an expanding number of low-wage, low-skill jobs. That explains a lot about the condition of the middle class. But this is not solely a U.S. phenomenon. As Autor observes, “The polarization of employment across occupations is not unique to the United States but rather is widespread across industrialized economies.”

Sunday’s “60 Minutes” report on the skills gap — three days later Schumer followed with his own related proposal to the state Board of Regents — noted that many U.S. manufacturers, competing with cheap labor the world over, no longer are willing to pay to train new workers for high-skill jobs; they expect school districts, community colleges, four-year colleges and other taxpayer-supported institutions to pick up all or some of the cost.

“As upstate New York’s economy switches gears towards the advanced industries of the 21st century,” said Schumer, “we need our students and education system to keep pace. It is critical that young adults across the state are college- and career-ready to meet the demands and job availability of today’s industries.”

Given the alternative — seeing jobs go to other states or countries more accommodating to training and retraining workers — New York government officials and educators have little choice than to help fill the skills gap. But the challenge extends well beyond high-tech jobs. As one employer told 60 Minutes, the skills gap can also be defined in broad terms: “It’s those basic skill sets. Show up on time, you know, read, write, do math, problem-solve. I can’t tell you how many people, even coming out of higher ed with degrees, who can’t put a sentence together without a major grammatical error. It’s a problem.”

That is no revelation to New York officials, who in recent years have raised standards for students and educators. They know that taxpayers already spend outsize sums providing remedial course work to high school graduates. It will take the plethora of state and federal education reforms — and the frequent retooling of those fixes — to change that score, and the educational and employment prospects for young New Yorkers. Schumer’s proposals, worthy of further consideration, are a few more for the growing heap.